What McDonald’s Taught Me About Running a Business

JOANNE CHANG: McDonald’s is the company that has taught me the most about running a business.

You can go into a McDonald’s anywhere and get the exact same product regardless of where you are.

We are always striving for consistency in our service and our product and I learned from McDonald’s and their franchise model the importance of creating clear systems and structures that make it obvious what your end goal is to anyone walking in the door.

We spend a lot of time and effort to ensure that each staff member knows what success looks like for Flour and Myers+Chang on a minute-by-minute basis—whether it’s how the pastries are displayed, what the music is like, how you are greeted, how the phone is answered, how your sandwich is prepared, how the work station is cleaned.
Another way to answer this question is: What company hasn’t?

Everywhere I go I notice how other employees treat their guests, how other restaurants communicate with their staff about menu information, how other businesses market new products to their customer base. I’m lucky in that the industry I’m in—food and hospitality—is one that we all deal with every single day in some form or another.

Joanne Chang (@jbchang) is the owner of and chef at Flour Bakery + Café and Myers + Chang in Boston.